


Splitting

by jenna221b



Series: First Wizarding War [4]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Canonical Character Death, Drama, F/M, First War with Voldemort, M/M, Marauders era, Minor Character Death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-16
Updated: 2017-04-16
Packaged: 2018-10-19 18:04:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,560
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10645188
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jenna221b/pseuds/jenna221b
Summary: What do they have that's worth fighting for?*Originally published in 2011 on CoS Forums- present me asks you to be gentle with past 16 year old me's writing ;) *





	Splitting

**Author's Note:**

> The end of a series that's really about the beginning...

**_Splitting_ **

They are together when it happens. Perhaps. All that matters is with one word, one voice, one decision, the world is wrenched apart.  
  


***

  
The last thing Remus sees is a pale face with wide grey eyes looking, searching. Something niggles at his mind and he just makes the connection when he's flying, hurtling through the air. Instinctively, he moves his arms to bring them up and over his head, feels his wand, fingers curling round it, then-  
  


***

  
"Looking for these?"  
  
He blinks, spotting a fuzzy hand holding a pair of glasses. A glint of gold is wrapped around one finger. "Cheers," James says, taking the much needed glasses and putting them on once more. "Oh! Hello, you."  
  
Lily smiles and rolls her eyes but the action seems distracted, weak. "'Hello', yourself. Is it normal for you to exchange pleasantries in combat?" With that greeting over, she turns, sifting through and shifting the rubble that surrounds them.  
  
With the help of his elbows, he struggles into a sitting position and then cautiously stands. There are a few painful twinges here and there but overall, nothing to worry about. 'Just bumps and bruises' as his mother would say and James near winces with the thought that he can't hear her reassure him ever again.  
  
"The others?" he grunts, pushing a cracked slab of concrete aside. Time is catching up with him- what has happened colliding messily with the here and now. A routine exercise, nothing to worry about. Experienced Aurors on either side. Yet still, the deadly unexpected came.  
  
"Well, once this rubbish is out of the way," Lily replies smoothly, kicking the remains of what was, moments before, a street, "We'll be able to get to them."  
  
She never voices their shared fear that they are alone, the only ones _left_ and for that, James is wordlessly grateful.  
  


***

  
Another curse whizzes past Sirius's ear; he lets out a quick gasp of relief before continuing the fray. He’s secretly glad that all he must think of is 'step, dodge, step, stun.' It keeps him occupied and stops his brain from churning out panicking screeches of the name 'JamesRemusPeterLily. '  
  
"Black, get down!" Gideon roars, as a scarily familiar jet of green shoots through the air. Sirius ducks just in time, blocking out the realisation of 'nearly killed, nearly killed.' Instead, he flashes Gideon a grin and a thumbs up, to which Gideon winks, flicking his wand. The spell just misses the oncoming Death Eater but the person stumbles. Irritated, the mask is yanked off to fall to the ground, insignificant as all of them.  
  
Bellatrix.  
  
Sirius doesn’t quite know why he does it. Maybe it’s the familiarity of the whole thing- watching the lip curling, _sneering_ and Sirius is back in the dreaded dining room, stuck in the ignorance of his relatives, stuck with Bellatrix ranting, while Regulus and his parents listen, enraptured. _Filthy half-breeds._  
  
And he’s running towards her, just as Fabian spots his twin and hastens to join them and Bellatrix is jeering and the blood is pounding in Sirius’s ears (he’s ready for this moment, yes, he’s ready) and he grips his wand fiercely and barely notices her shout and the second flash of emerald until Fabian’s shoulder collides with his own and...  
  
"Easy, son, I’ve got you," Alastor Moody mutters, dragging him back. Sirius wants to scream but suddenly finds he can make no noise at all. _It was for me. That was meant to be for me._  
  


***

  
Peter can’t really understand how he was separated. One minute, all four-well, _five_ of them now- were talking in hushed voices, along with the rest of the Order, checking the deserted street for any disturbances. Of course, it wasn’t the most relaxed of atmospheres but, in all honesty, it wasn’t _that_ bad. There was certainly no warning, nothing that could help them predict something like this.  
  
Peter doesn’t just want a warning. He needs one- depends on it. His life has been built up on signals, be them innocent, childish things such as, "Quick, McGonnagall’s coming!" or darker things like, "Run!" or, "Now!" or...  
  
He hears distant echoes of a fight and pleads silently to himself that no-one from the other side finds him.  
  
Above all things, Peter hates duelling.  
  


***

  
It’s his breath he notices first, somehow, although the numbing cold creeps in soon after. The smoky tendrils unfurling in front of him can only mean one thing, in the present climate.  
  
"Li..." But abruptly, the searing cold is not just lingering around him; it’s inside his chest, constricting his throat, catching every attempted breath.  
  
James finds himself inexplicably detached as the black mass with the death like rattling swoops down upon him for what did it matter, anyway? They had lost, it was over. Merlin knows where Sirius and Remus and Peter are- perhaps they are in a place where they cannot return. And, oh, wouldn’t it be blissful oblivion to live without knowing or caring...  
  
He spots the silver doe out of the corner of his eye and that is where it remains. Its glow brings with it a diluted kind of warmth- a persistent tugging on his consciousness. And there, in the distance, comes Lily’s scream, as separate to James as if it’s from a different world entirely: " _Expecto Patronum_ , James, come on!"  
  
But the darkness and forever reaching, claw like hands promise silence- promise nothing at all-  
  
"James, I-I’m pregnant!"  
  
And the sickening hold is broken and the warmth is flooding back and James is reminded, with concrete fact that he, more than ever, has the most wonderful things worth fighting for.  
  


***

  
Remus smells thick dust, mixed with the slight metallic tang of blood. He struggles to open his eyes; his lids remain stubbornly heavy, and then he wonders if he even wants to. Instead, he tries to listen but all he can hear is the dull thud of his heart. Soon, terror threatens to claim him: no-one knows where he is, how can they?  
  
Minutes pass, at least, Remus hopes it’s only minutes when, amazingly, the sound of stumbling footsteps travels to him and the unsettling quiet is shattered:  
  
"No. _No_ ," and then, "M-Moony, Moony, Remus, oh, God, please, please," and someone turns him over and is saying, "C-can you hear me, Remus? Can you hear me?" And miraculously, Remus’s eyes flutter open.  
  
"Oh...not _you_ , " Remus manages to groan. Sirius laughs, almost hysterically, all tight and high pitched.  
  
"Don’t do that! I thought-I thought-" His voice cracks and dies.  
  
"Hey, it’d take more’n’that to finish m’off." Remus doesn’t mean it to come out slurred but it does. Sirius claps a hand to his forehead, eyes widening.  
  
"Merlin, sorry I-are you...you’re bleeding," he whispers and he leans forward, placing a hand around the back of Remus’s head and slowly pulling him up- just a little. With his other hand, Sirius waves his wand and a stream of unintelligible words tumble out of his mouth. Remus feels his skin knitting itself together, sharp pain leaving his senses (of course, there’s still the harsh aching sensation all over but it’s an improvement, nonetheless).  
  
"Thanks," he says, fortunately finding it much easier to talk.  
  
Sirius doesn’t reply, merely lowers Remus down again gently and stares at nothing, pressing the bridge of his nose forcefully with his fingers. Remus knows, with the certainty that can only come from one being close to someone for so long, that Sirius will tell him (whatever it is) when he is ready and Remus is quite alright with waiting.  
  
"It’s the Prewetts," Sirius eventually gasps out, "They’re dead."  
  
Remus experiences a feeling of horrible emptiness in the pit of his stomach. "Wh...What happened?"  
  
"It was my fault, Moony, mine, all of it. It was just-" Sirius makes a noise that’s both a moan of frustration and something else. " _She_ -Bellatrix and I-I don’t know! I- and Fabian, he saw what I was going to...and-" He claps his hands together, imitating two people colliding. Remus quickly tries to fill in the gaping holes Sirius has left as he ploughs on: "And Dolohov, I think it was him, came towards us and Gideon, he knew what had happened and what would...and he just caught Fabian and held onto him; he didn’t even fight back..."  
  
Desperately, Remus’s mind whirrs thinking of something-anything- to say but absolutely nothing comes.  
  
"It was my fault," Sirius replies blankly, "I should’ve-"  
  
"No," Remus interrupts and is momentarily surprised out how sharp the word sounds. "Don’t you _dare_ say that; don’t even think it, Padfoot!"  
  
Sirius lets one long breath out-Remus doubts he has even taken in anything he’s said- then attempts the ghost of a smile. "But you’re alright," he says softly.  
  
" _We’re_ alright," Remus amends, taking Sirius’s hand in his own and squeezing it, putting many unsaid things in the action and hoping against all hope that Sirius can understand them.  
  


***

  
The masked figure has Peter’s wand before he can even form a spell in his mind, never mind cast it. He freezes and waits for the inevitable, every muscle on edge.  
  
"You’ll be next, scum," the Death Eater spits and is gone with one flick of a dark cloak. Peter reasons that he should feel safe, considering that he has been given his wand back.  
  
But, there’s the thing, you see: he never does.


End file.
